Love and Zombies. And books. And infrequent updates.

Happy Valentine’s Day! Here, have a good book.

I have literally been saving this book up to review it on Valentine’s Day even though I finished it several days ago, because I love it that much. Which makes me sound like a pronounced loon, I know, but when you spend your days chasing after toddlers and doing endless rounds of laundry, you learn to savour life’s small pleasures.

Reasons I might actually remember this one: This is a m/m romance featuring a cast of male and female magicians taking part in a reality television show. I don’t actually like reality tv much, and I don’t read a whole lot of m/m romance, and the truth is I don’t remember why I bought this book. (Clearly I have a problem; there’s a reason I gave up online shopping for Lent this year.) I think someone recommended it to me, but I don’t know who, or why, or under what circumstances, so maybe I’m imagining that part and I just liked the cover or something. WHO KNOWS. But if someone did rec it, I cannot thank them enough, because I loved this book. For half a day after reading it I couldn’t even start another book, because I didn’t want to leave the world of this book.

The writing is superb, so seamless you forget you’re reading and just get lost in the story, but the best thing about this book is the cast of characters. The two romantic leads are wonderful, but so is absolutely every other one of the twelve-in-total magicians competing for the cash and fame.

Seriously: even the ones designed for you to root against are fully realized, and ultimately at least a little bit sympathetic. The author could write a story about any one of the minor-character magicians, and I’d buy it in a heartbeat, but my personal favourites were the Math Wizard and Muriel Broom. If I thought it would work I’d track down the author and bribe her to write some form of sequel.